Abuse in family rises 10 per cent

The incidence of family violence reported to Victoria Police rose by more than 10 per cent from 1999 to 2001, according to a report released last week.

Alarmingly, the Women's Health West report shows pregnant women are at a higher risk of experiencing violence from their male partners.

Up to 25 per cent of 400 pregnant women interviewed as part of a preliminary study at the Royal Women's Hospital said they had experienced violence in their current pregnancy.

Violence can often cause miscarriage or injury to the child, according to Women Health West's manager of women's health information, research and development team, Lee FitzRoy. She said the preliminary findings supported other Australian and international studies.

The report, Measuring the Tides of Violence, also combines data from the police, courts, family support and crisis services.

While Victoria's southern metropolitan region reported the biggest increase, with a 13.8 per cent rise in reports of family violence, the western metropolitan region recorded a disproportionate number of women seeking help compared to its population. The region, which covers suburbs such as Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Melton and Moonee Valley, represents 13.2 per cent of the state's population but women from the area make up 21 per cent of those using the Women's Domestic Violence Crisis Service.

Anecdotal evidence from crisis workers suggests violence in the home is becoming more severe, and that male perpetrators are increasingly using weapons such as knives.

With nearly one-quarter of women in the western region speaking no English or not speaking English well, ethnic women were often "doubly disadvantaged", Ms FitzRoy said. It was much harder for non-English-speaking women to make a report to the police and gain access to crisis services.

The report also found one or more children were present in 45 per cent of reported family violence incidents. In 20 per cent of these cases, children were victims of abuse, according to one of the report's contributors, Rhonda Cumberland, co-ordinator of the Women's Domestic Violence Crisis Service.

"They were in it, pushed, dragged out of bed, hit, screamed at, used by the perpetrator to punish her through the kid," she wrote.

The report also showed that males took out about 20 per cent of intervention orders at the Sunshine Magistrates Court.

Intervention orders, designed to protect victims of violence, are being used by men as "tit for tat" orders as a way of getting back at their spouses, according to the senior registrar at Sunshine Magistrates Court, Peter Wise.

"They are not necessarily males that demand intervention orders because they have been assaulted by their spouse, their wife or their daughter," he wrote in the report. "The majority are 'tit for tat' orders; when the men are served with the orders by the police, they demand justice, they think they are going to be denied access to the children . . . they think it's an outrage."

The report called for greater leadership from governments to change community attitudes, and for more resources.

Ms FitzRoy said shortages in public housing and women's refuges meant many women had nowhere to go when they were forced to flee for their safety.

"We have stories of women who are living in their cars and the best advice that some workers . . . are able to give women is what are the best car parks for them to park their car in. And they've got kids," she said.